Montco employees grumble over $47K raise for Deputy COO

Have you noticed that the pockets on the slacks that Montco Deputy Chief Operating Officer Lee Soltysiak is sporting are now much larger?

No, Soltysiak is not just styling.

He needs those expanded pockets to lug home his hefty new raise — almost $47,000 a year.

Joking aside, many of the county worker bees are angrily buzzing about the increase that boosts his $83,066 a year salary to $130,000.

“What a joke and slap in the face when they can’t find the money to give a raise to longtime employees making $25,000 a year,” seethed one employee, asking not to be identified by name.

Defending the raise, Communications Director Frank X. Custer explained that the increase reflects Soltysiak’s change in status, going from working three days a week to five days a week while also taking on an increased workload.

“Eighty thousand for part-time work,” sputtered another employee. “That’s almost three times what I make working five days a week.”

Custer said former deputy operating officer James W. Maza earned $92,500 as a part-timer in the prior administration.

The top paid county employee is Health Department Director/Medical Director Dr. Joseph M. DiMino, who earns $195,369 in his dual capacity, according to Custer.

“They are all way overpaid,” grumped a third employee.

Obviously this is an issue that county officials cannot win.

The real question is, do they care?

My bucks are bigger than your bucks

Democratic 13th District congressional candidate Marjorie Margolies, who once held the seat, and state Sen. Daylin Leach, D-17, who is among the others running for the seat, both recently put out dueling press releases touting how many buckos they have raised for their campaigns.

Are you kidding me?

I know, I know, it’s all about jockeying for position (for a race that is not until next year) — believing money shows support and hoping that those less well-bankrolled will drop out before the race even begins.

Still, it is rather pathetic.

In my utopian world, candidates would let their positions sell their candidacies.

However, positions are the least issue in these modern campaigns of slick brochures and electronic media buys.

The art of communicating, NOT

Just got home from a long day at work one day last week and noticed the voice mail light flashing on my home phone.

Thinking it might be a family member, I immediately called it up.

Imagine my chagrin when it turns out to be a political robocall (and you all know what I think of them) from Gov. Tom Corbett, who was touting his first 2½ years in office.

Give me a break!

While I despise robo calls, I have come to expect them at election time, but Corbett’s re-election contest is not until next year.

Is he that desperate?

I hardly think these annoying calls are going to boost his favorable ratings.

Now you are talking

Montco planning commission board member Charles J. Tornetta, appointed to his post in October 1966, is the longest-sitting member of that board.

However, he sure is not stagnating.

With board members and staff repeatedly bombarded with directives from the current administration to make the planning commission more relevant and user friendly, Tornetta recently had a suggestion to the staff following a rather dry presentation on non-residential growth in the county last year.

Planning geeks and developers might be interested in knowing that there was 804,810 square feet of new commercial construction last year. The general public? Not so much.

Tornetta recommended that, next year, the planning staff offer estimates on how many new jobs are generated by the new commercial construction and how much that new growth will increase the tax base in county municipalities.

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